How Did the Big Bang Happen?

HIGH-RES ECHO. Evidence for the Big Bang comes from detailed data from the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) and Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellites. In 1992, COBE produced the first good CMB map (top); nine years later, WMAP followed with a far-more detailed version.

NASA/WMAP Science Team

The evidence is clear — from the underpinnings of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, to the detection of the cosmic microwave background radiation by Arno Penzias and Robert ­Wilson in the 1960s, to the confirmation of ripples in the fabric of ancient space-time from the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite in 1992. But the devil is in the details, and that’s where figuring out how Big Bang cosmology really works gets interesting.

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